Amnesty condemns Saudi anti-terror campaign

Saudi Arabia has been condemned by Amnesty International for "gross and widespread" human rights abuses by detaining thousands of people in counter-terrorism round-ups and holding many of them for years without charge or trial.

In a report, Amnesty says many Saudi detainees have been tortured, some have "disappeared" into the conservative kingdom's justice system and some have been sentenced to long prison terms or death sentences after unfair, summary trials. Counter-terrorist measures have exacerbated an already "dire" human rights situation, it adds.

Former Guantánamo Bay detainees are among those now being held in Saudi Arabia. Amnesty warns that the UK resident Shaker Aamer – still detained in Cuba – could also be held without charge or trial if transferred to his native Saudi Arabia.

Most detainees are suspected supporters of al-Qaida and other groups. But others are "prisoners of conscience" targeted for their peaceful opposition to government policies, says Amnesty. Saudi Arabia has pursued a successful anti-terrorist strategy since May 2003, when al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula first surfaced in the kingdom, the home of Osama bin Laden.

Its rehabilitation programmes have been held up as a model by indulgent western allies. Two years ago, the Saudi interior minister said that since 2001 the country had detained 9,000 security suspects and that 3,106 were still being held.

Amnesty warns that the Saudi authorities have tried to deflect attention from its "shocking" record and "contempt" for human rights with a state-controlled media focus on a high-profile case against a group of 991 detainees – 330 of them convicted this month – and the "re-education" programme.